But Democrats and Republicans alike warned that they’d expect significant changes before authorizing the unprecedented government intervention.

Below are some highlights:

Q Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)

I’ve heard you say that, in fact, we can make money. Can you . . . tell me that as we increase the debt limit of the United States by $700 billion, which basically means $2,333 for every man and woman in this country, that this will not cost taxpayers anything?

A Bernanke

I never made any guarantees like that. There will be risk involved . . . What is clear is the $700 billion is not an expenditure. There will be a significant amount of recovery. Whether it’s the full amount, it’s hard to know.

APaulson

[If a bailout does not occur,] People aren’t going to get the loans they need, small businesses aren’t going to get the capital they need, farmers aren’t going to get the loans they need, so there is risk to the taxpayers . . . There is less risk to taxpayers in this course than not doing anything.

Q Menendez

Can you give me a quantification as to what the risk is?

A Paulson

I can’t give a quantification.

Q Menendez

Explain why.

A Paulson

We are not making an expenditure. We’re buying assets, we are holding assets and we are reselling assets, and what the cost to the taxpayer will ultimately be will depend on how the economy recovers . . . I certainly did not tell you there is no risk to the taxpayers.

Q Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)

How will you select these so-called unbiased asset managers [for the bailout] . . . Won’t there be a perception of Wall Street helping Wall Street?

A Paulson

I would say we will design a process that has as many protections around it as possible, to bring in experts, and we will have the proper oversight. Senator, that is how we are going to work through this.

Q Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)

I don’t think a single call to my office on this proposal has been positive. I don’t think I’ve gotten one yet. Part of this is reflexive outrage from taxpayers . . . My question is, do you think Wall Street owes the American people an apology?

A Bernanke

Wall Street made a lot of mistakes, regulators made a lot of mistakes, we are going to have to go through that . . . People on Main Street who think Wall Street is too far away, has no implications for their lives, are just misinformed.

Q Brown

People know that Wall Street has an effect on their lives, that’s not the question. Does Wall Street owe the American people an apology?

A Bernanke

Wall Street itself is an abstraction. There are many people who made big mistakes, and many regulators who made big mistakes, and we need to make sure what they were and make sure they never happen again.

A Paulson

I share the outrage that the people have. It’s embarrassing to look at this. There is a lot of blame to go around, a lot of blame. A lot of blame is with the big financial institutions that have engaged with this irresponsible lending; the overly complicated and complex securities that no one understood as well as they should, and it turns out they didn’t understand themselves; the rating agencies that rated those securities; blame to people who made the loans they shouldn’t have made; to some people who took out loans that they shouldn’t have taken out, the regulators. There is no doubt about that . . . I think what your constituents want to hear is, let’s fix the problem in a way that will have the least negative impact on them and then go out and deal with this problem.

Q Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.)

Section 8 of your proposal says the following, “Decisions made by the secretary may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” This is rather sweeping, to put it mildly . . . The idea you can have decisions made that are not subject to the review of courts or agencies is so sweeping that it would be troubling to me.

A Paulson

We moved very quickly to deal with something and it’s very easy to second-guess it, but we need something that can have strong oversight. We’ve got to have the protections, we’ve got to have the transparency. You heard me say that. Would I like to have months and months to put this together? Yes, I would, but I don’t think the situation calls for that. So what we want to do is have the oversight, have the protections, but be able to move quickly to implement this.

Q Dodd

The rule of law is something that all of us up here, regardless of party, care about, and the idea that you would ask for such sweeping authority here, to sweep that aside, I suspect met with as much concern as I am expressing towards you . . . This is a paragraph that is going to require some work, to put it mildly.

Q Menendez

The trouble is that these assets are so intertwined and complex and no one can figure out what they are worth, and hence no one will buy them. Since they are impossible to value . . . how does one achieve that? How do you know how to bid in the reverse auction?

A Bernanke

I do believe there are combinations of auction-based-type market procedures with expert input that would reveal [the value], just as when you sell a painting at Sotheby’s, nobody knows what’s its worth until the auction is over, then you know what it’s worth. I think it’s the same thing here.